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Newtown parents push for gun limits in N.J.

A half-dozen parents of children killed in the shooting at a Connecticut school in December made a single point during their visit to New Jersey on Tuesday: smaller ammunition magazines could save lives.

Newtown parents push for gun limits in N.J.

Parents of children killed during the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., front row from left, Nelba Marquez-Greene, Nicole Hockley, Neil Heslin, Mark Barden and Nicole Barden address the media at the New Jersey statehouse on April 30, 2013, in Trenton, N.J. Family members of the victims joined gun control advocates to discuss need for New Jersey state Senate and Gov. Chris Christie to support Assembly-approved measure to limit ammunition magazines to 10 bullets.(Photo: Julio Cortez, AP)

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TRENTON, N.J. -- Emotional and insistent, roughly a half-dozen parents of children killed in the shooting at a Connecticut school in December made a single point during their visit to New Jersey on Tuesday: smaller ammunition magazines could save lives.

"At my daughter's school, 11 children had the opportunity to escape when the shooter reloaded," said Nelba Marquez-Green, whose 6-year-old daughter, Ana, was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. "Ana would not have been one of those children that was saved, but I'd be happy if there were more survivors that had, even if Ana hadn't made it."

The group came to Trenton to press state senators to include stricter limits on ammunition in the package of gun-related measures being considered by a committee this week.

The Senate Law and Public Safety Committee advanced seven gun bills despite strenuous objections from gun-rights advocates. Meanwhile, the parents from Newtown used closed-door meetings and a packed news conference to say that one lesson lawmakers should take from the massacre at Sandy Hook is the value of reducing the maximum capacity of magazines to 10 rounds.

Current law in New Jersey limits magazines to 15 rounds. The Assembly passed a bill in February that would reduce that limit, but the bill is not in the package being considered in the Senate. The bill also is not supported by Gov. Chris Christie.

"Lives have been saved when a shooter has had to stop and reload," said Marquez-Green, who dabbed away tears as she spoke.

Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son, Dylan, was killed at Sandy Hook, said the shooter, Adam Lanza, shot 154 bullets in four minutes and carried 10 30-round-capacity magazines — having left smaller-capacity magazines at home to maximize the death toll, she said. She said that in Dylan's classroom, 11 children fled when Lanza stopped to reload.

"He was not able to escape," Hockley said. "So I'm one of those parents who ask myself every day, every minute, if those magazines had held 10 rounds instead of 30, forcing the shooter to reload many more times, would my son be alive today?"

Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, a Democrat from Gloucester, has been reluctant to include the ammunition reduction in the Senate's package of gun-related bills and did not budge from that position in a statement Tuesday.

"Twenty years ago, New Jersey implemented a limit on the size of ammunition clips. For two decades that limit has been effective," Sweeney said. "What we must focus on now is preventing guns from getting into the hands of those who should not have them. That means addressing issues of mental health, background checks, illegal guns and straw purchases."

Assembly Majority Leader Louis D. Greenwald, Democrat from Camden, said that in the 2011 shooting that injured then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green was killed by the 13th bullet shot.

"The difference between 15 and 10 could be your child," said Greenwald, who then made reference to the Newtown families standing behind him. "It was their child."

One Second Amendment advocate, however, said the sacrifices of others should be taken into consideration.

Glenn Darwell of Lacey said he served during the Vietnam War, his father served during World War II, and his grandfather served during World War I, and he described himself as "a very upset veteran."

Glenn Darwell, of Forked River, N.J., who is against strict gun laws, makes a point to the state legislature during a Senate Law and Public Safety hearing in Trenton, N.J. April 30, 2013. The legislature heard from advocates on both sides of the gun control debate during the hearing.(Photo: Julio Cortez, AP)

"I'm tired of politicians and others trying to take away the constitutional rights that all we veterans served for, for all of us Americans," Darwell said. "Anyone who supports these bills against the Second Amendment spits on and denigrates the service of every serviceman who ever served."

The Senate Law and Public Safety Committee voted Tuesday to advance seven gun-related bills. In addition to revamping the background check program to require photo IDs with encoded information, other bills declare violence a public health crisis, add involuntary commitment mental health records to background checks and disqualify people on the federal "no fly" list from having gun permits.